The present invention relates to a photoprinter for recording optical data patterns into a photoconductive element or like recording medium and, more particularly, to an optical data pattern generation device adapted for generating a desired optical data pattern to be projected on the recording medium and comprising a phosphor member.
In the field of printers, various types of photoprinters are known such as laser printers, optical fiber tube (OFT) printers, light emitting diode (LED) printers and optical shutter array printers. Of these known types of photoprinters, the laser printer requires such a movable mechanism as a high speed rotation mechanism as typified by a polygon, which adds to the intricacy of construction of an imaging system. The OFT printer suffers from a bulky construction and needs a strict control over the small gap between a recording surface and the adjacent end of a fiber tube. The LED printer employs numerous LED chips connected together in one direction or arranged in a zigzag configuration. This is undesirable because the LED chips contribute to an increase in cost and because the distribution of emitted light is uneven. Further, the optical shutter array printer has a drawback similar to that of the LED printer in case where use is made of PLZT or the like as a crystal device.